Half of the deaths occurred in prison,seven during police operations and one in a hospital.
NSW State Coroner Teresa O’Sullivan,who has the sad duty of investigating these deaths, and expressed sympathy for the families of the dead who are often left feeling powerless.
It is shocking that the rate of deaths in custody is still rising rather than falling,more than 31 years after the landmark Royal Commission into Aboriginal Deaths in Custody which first put the issue on the national agenda.
Indigenous people are still 10 times more likely to die in custody than the general population. Indigenous people made up 37.2 per cent of all deaths in custody.
There is no clear explanation why 2021 was such a horror year but whatever the cause it must not be repeated. These deaths are a stain on all our consciences.
To take one example,the Coroner’s Court held hearings in July a 22-year-old Gomeroi man,who disappeared into the flood-swollen Namoi River near Moree after he was followed by police.
The inquiry heard that police initially only spent nine minutes looking for Copeland because of a misunderstanding and they treated Copeland’s family disrespectfully. Counsel assisting the inquiry has suggested the coroner should recommend equipping police for rescues and better police training.
While it is important to improve the conditions for Indigenous people when they deal with police and when they are in prison,the main cause of the high death rate is that Indigenous people are much more likely than the general population to be imprisoned and to come into contact with police. This is the nub of the problem.
As part of the Closing the Gap Agreement the NSW government has pledged to cut the rate of Indigenous adult incarceration by 15 per cent by 2031 and by 30 per cent for minors aged between 10 and 17.
But in the most recent figures for March 2022,the number of Indigenous adults in prison is almost unchanged from 2019 at 3438 or 28 per cent of the prison population.
Attorney-General Mark Speakman took a step forward this year when where Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander elders and respected persons will offer advice to the presiding judge on sentencing and case plans. This culturally sensitive approach combined with intense supervision should help reduce the number of Indigenous people in jails.
This year’s state budget also allocated $10 million over four years to trial a program of bail advocacy and support services for First Nations young people. A NSW Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research study found that people who access the service are 16 per cent less likely to be in jail six months later.
But NSW is going slow in other areas. It has resisted widespread calls,including from the NSW parliamentary inquiry into First Nations people in custody,to raise the age of criminal responsibility and the minimum age of criminal detention from 10 to at least 14 years.
There is no magic wand to stop Indigenous deaths in custody but the shocking numbers for 2021 leave no doubt that much more needs to be done and action must come urgently.
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